Luck of Nines

34

      He went up to the dorms alone.

       It was clear right away what Malfoy wanted him to see. His bed was unmade and his stuff in ruins, tossed about the room.  Some of his underwear draped from Nott's bed posts and curtains, his robes were sliced and scattered about the floor, one shoe was tossed onto Phineas's bed, muddied footprints of a different size than his covered the messed up blankets. It was good, perhaps then, that it was only him seeing this. Judging from how Malfoy had been acting all night the response which would annoy the Malfoy heir the most was nothing.

The Malfoy heir himself had seemingly worn himself out with all that anxious, angry waiting and had truly fallen asleep, probably having laid down so that when Harry saw and stormed over he could play even more the victim card of being crudely wakened by Harry's temper tantrum or something of that sort, Harry didn't particularly care what Malfoy had really been planning though.

Clutched in Malfoy's grasp was a small item, likely what he had mistaken for Harry's prized possession, it was the only thing he owned which wasn't on the mandatory school list of things to bring. He had the hat, the books, the wand, the uniform robes, quills, ink, and things to go underneath it; all of which the Hogwarts letter had insisted on. But that was it. Except for one small item.

A dull colored ball which sprouted wings on command and fluttered about. A child's snitch, Analyse had called it, something children played with and was restrained not to hover too high and to return and deactivate if not interacted with for so long. It wasn't the same one that Analyse had shown him, back then he had suspected it of being some type of monitoring device and gotten rid of it. But, it had been quite fun to hunt and after some time, and Chipped Fang's occasional complaints, he'd gotten his hands on another one.

Essentially, the item Malfoy thought was so precious that he was keeping away from him, was a replaceable cat's toy. It wouldn't even be the first time it got destroyed and he had to replace the thing.  Chipper had no sentiment behind it, he did not pine for the time he had spent with Analyse before her betrayal. It had taught him necessary things, but mostly it was tinged now with bitter realization of his own foolishness and spite for her treachery.

Scoffing, he set about gathering his things, the mending charm, reparo, which he'd seen in the first chapter of his charms textbook, worked wonders on his torn books and clothes after a few failed attempts. He still tossed the clothes into the cleaning hamper just to be safe- it was an odd device which transported clothes away only for them to return neatly folded to one's baggage overnight. He wasn't sure how it worked, but it did and that was all he needed at the moment, eventually he'd figure it out, but it wasn't high on his list of priorities.

      The books were returned to their neat stacks on his bedside table, his spare parchment also repaired and returned to its spot inside of the duffle bag, the handful of cheap quills he had were also repaired and placed away in the cheap cylinder tube that the pack of quills had came in.  Soon all that was left was finding a way to fix his destroyed spare set of boots and the boot prints in Phineas's bed. Here he was at a loss on what he should do, left frowning down at the bed in contemplation.

The door behind him swung open and Nott entered. The other was quiet for a moment, "Did Malfoy really not do anything I expected the room to be torn apart."

So Nott knew what Malfoy had likely been planning?

Either way he needed knowledge to pull this off without a fuss, and currently Nott was his closest source for this, "No, he did, I've mostly taken care of it though,"

Nott stepped over to his side and ran a more analytical eye over the scene, his eyes finally catching the boot prints mostly hidden behind curtains and the scuffed up boots, one of which was in tatters from what looked like a spell, as well as the practically empty duffle bag. "He took your clothes too?"

"They're in the wash." Harry replied, "I don't suppose you know a spell to fix that." He asked with a nonchalant wave of his hand.

Nott was silent for a second, "I do, but you'll have to be the one who casts it."

"That's fine." Harry agreed he listened carefully as Nott laid out how to perform the spell and then carefully followed out the steps managing to clean and fix the bedding. The boots though, were irreparable.

Quiet filled the dorm as Harry tossed the boots to Chipped Fang to let him mangle them some more, then it would go into the trash compartment that sat in the bathroom.

"You are very careful about your magic use." He commented and watched how they stiffened immediately.

"I suppose I am." Nott was defensive. The silence stretched and he cracked to say more, "My mother died from conflicting magic, she was sickly all of her life because of it, and as you could see, that curse was passed on to me."

Harry smiled at them with a raised eyebrow in response.

"You don't seem very human," Nott finally said, heavy resentment in his voice, "Most people would just say 'I'm sorry for your loss' or some other empty condolence."

"That wouldn't change anything, and hearing that from a stranger who never even knew her wouldn't make it better either."

"That's right..." Nott sighed sounding a little broken, "You lost your parents..."

"I never knew them either." Harry cut him off from continuing, uninterested in these unknown people, in the end, parents were useless and plenty of creatures grew up without them, although he was still grateful for Rosey's guidance, as temporary as it ended up being, it was time to take a big risk here, "and I know what you're hiding; the conflicting magic that killed your mother it was because of magical creatures wasn't it?"

Nott flinched, "She wasn't fully human. Merpeople and humans don't communicate or get along that much, but when they do, having a child is forbidden. Apparently I had two grandparents who thought otherwise and so my mother was born... she was already weak before she had me, I was never supposed to happen, but once she knew she refused to get rid of me and her health sloped downward from there. There was nothing more that we could do to save her since further research into possible cures were all banned as dark magic."

     Harry hummed in acknowledgment.

      "You don't have anything to say?" Nott scoffed, he was vulnerable.

       "The others don't know?" He responded.

       "No..."

       "Then why are you telling me?"  His risk was paying off.

        "Because I believe that you can change things, so that this never happens again, the Malfoy's only care for power. Their own. But nobody dares confront them, Dumbledore is useless he talks plenty but says nothing and actually acts even less! You belong to neither of their groups but you aren't powerless, people look to you. You're my last hope that things could change here..."

        "And so you hope by siding with me early and telling me this you could become my closest ally." Chipper mused in askance moving closer to better inspect them, it explained their scent, but they were still holding some things back. He'd pushed enough for now though. Namely what 'this' meant.

       "Yes." Nott was staring at him confused at the slight invasion of 'personal space' it was only because of this social norm that he was holding back as much as he was in maintaining a few inches space.

      "Very well, I hope we don't betray each other than, Nott."  He pulled away with a smile.

       "What an odd phrasing." Nott smiled weakly, "But you can call me Theo if you'd like."

       "Then I suppose you'd want to call me Harry?" He asked in thought, "Ask me again tomorrow before class."

       "In front of everyone."

       "Of course."

   Silence.   But then,  "As you wish."

       So it is not Monday. But at this point I am so off any schedule for updating that we'll just say when you see an update from me, it is Monday, but only for that particular story. -T.A.L.A.